Robbie Williams has opened up going bald and his struggles to replenish his hair.
The former Take That star has been thinning on top for the last 10 years.
In that time, the 48-year-old singer has used various methods to restore his locks.
He kicked off with a hair transplant nine years ago. This worked well to fill in the star’s bald patches but unfortunately hair loss is a continual process so while the transplanted hair should last Robbie for the rest of his life, he continued to lose more his natural hair.
Robbie would almost certainly have had a FUE (follicular unit extraction) transplant – the more modern method chosen by most celebrities and around 80% of Dr Asim Shahmalak’s patients at Crown Clinic.
With FUE, the donor hair is harvested from the back and sides of the scalp and replanted in the balding areas.
Scarring is minimal – patients are left with red pin pricks where the donor hair is taken out and replanted but these tend to heal after two weeks.
Celebrity clients at Crown Clinic who have had FUE include Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd and the model Calum Best.
At Crown Clinic, we also do the more traditional method of hair transplantation – FUT (follicular unit transplantation).
The difference with FUE is that the surgeon obtains the donor hair all in one go with FUT – cutting a strip of skin from the scalp. Technicians then extra the donor grafts from the strip which are then skilfully replanted in the scalp by Dr Shahmalak.
Dr Shahmalak has performed two FUT transplants on the TV doctor, Christian Jessen.
Robbie spoke about having a second hair transplant in 2020, saying that he was going to “thatch” it.
He moaned: “Man is going thin on top.”
But Robbie had left it too late for a second transplant because he did not have enough donor hair to fill in the gaps.
He subsequently tried some expensive follicle growth injections which failed to make a big difference.
He is planning to wear a wig to cover up his baldness on his next tour.
The lesson from Robbie’s experience is not to leave it too late to seek a hair transplant.
Our surgeon Asim Shahmalak can work wonders but he needs a good covering of donor hair to make a transplant work well. If a patient has lost too much of their natural hair there is a limit to what even the most skilled surgeon can do to repair the damage.
Spurs manager Antonio Conte is one of a number of people in football who have benefitted from a hair transplant.
Another is the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who has been very open about seeking help with his hair.
Conte, 52, looks completely different in the before and after pictures shown on this page and is likely to have had several procedures to boost his hair.
Like a lot of men, Conte started losing his hair in his late 20s and early 30s when he was a successful player in the Italian league and playing for the Italian national team.
He was pictured several times during this time showing all the signs of advanced male pattern baldness.
Since becoming such a successful manager, Conte has had at least two hair transplants to cover up the bald areas at the front of his hairline.
It is likely he would have opted for a FUE (follicular unit extraction) procedure. This is where the grafts are removed individually from the back and sides of the scalp and then replanted in the balding areas.
Around 80% of patients coming to Crown Clinic to our consultant surgeon Asim Shahmalak now opt for FUE.
This is a big change on five years ago when the majority of our patients chose the more traditional method of hair transplantation known as FUT (follicular unit transplantation) or strip surgery.
The advantage of FUE over FUT is that there is less scarring. Most FUE patients are simply left with some red pin pricks where the donor hair is harvested and replanted which go away after a few weeks.
Famous Crown Clinic FUE patients include the Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd, model Calum Best, and the football pundit Didi Hamann.
FUE is slightly more expensive than FUE because it requires more time to carry out. This is because the donor grafts are removed individually rather in one single strip of skin which is surgically removed, which is what happens under FUT.
Crown Clinic’s most famous FUT patient is the TV doctor Christian Jessen who has had two FUT transplants with Dr Shahmalak. Scarring is greater with FUT and all patients are left with a lined scar on the scalp where the strip for the donor hair is removed. This soon heals and if you wear your hair relatively long, like Christian Jessen, it is very difficult to see the scar because the hair grows over it. However, the scar is visible if you like to wear your hair short or shaved, like Calum Best, so we recommend FUE for all patients who like their hair short. Around 20% of Crown Clinic patients still prefer FUT. There is evidence to show that slightly few grafts are lost in the donor hair harvesting process by removing the grafts in one go – so that is an advantage of FUT.
Conte has not spoken about his hair transplants, so we don’t know for sure which method he chose.
Whichever one it was, he is to be congratulated on his choice and the work of his hair transplant surgeon because he has an excellent result.
- June 22, 2022